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Review: When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit by Judith Kerr

“Anna is too busy with schoolwork and tobogganing to listen to the talk of Hitler. But one day she and her brother are rushed out of Germany in alarming secrecy, away from everything they know. Their father is wanted by the Nazis – dead or alive. This is the start of a huge adventure, sometimes frightening, very often funny, and always, always exciting.

Judith Kerr was born in Berlin and left Germany in 1933 to escape the Nazis. Her novels are based on her own experience.”

Many years ago when I was in high school, I read a lot. I wasn’t exactly the fastest reader, but I got through many books. At one point, I was running out of books to read from my school library. However, new books eventually arrived and Judith Kerr’s When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit was with these new books. Originally, I just overlooked the book. I wasn’t interested in it and for no particular reason. I must have ignored the book on the shelf for about 4 weeks, until my English Teacher suggested to me that I read the book. At first I was wary about reading the book. I’m half German on my mum’s side of the family and because we spend a lot of time in Germany, we go to different museums and sites to do with the Second World War. Due to this, I don’t really like reading books on the subject even though I know I should read them. I only read Anne Frank’s Diary after my friend bugged me for two years to read it. Anyway, to get to the point, I read the book.

I wasn’t sure what to expect when I read the book. I was expecting to not like the book.

Oh, how I was wrong. I was super wrong. When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit quickly became my favourite book, I even love it more than Harry Potter and I’ve slept with those books in my bed before today. I don’t remember why I did that, or why I am sharing that.

What I love about this book is the thing that I actually didn’t think I would like. I love how it is written from the perspective of a child. When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit is Judith Kerr’s account of her childhood in Nazi Germany and how her family moved to escape the Nazis. We follow Anna (a fictionalised version of Judith herself) as she encounters all these new things and as her world is turned upside down. She doesn’t quite understand the significance of what is happening to her and her family, this is reflected in the title of the novel. The novel ends with the family arriving in yet another place which as a reader, I found awkward and clunky in that the novel wasn’t tied up in to a neat little package. However, this is due to the novel being the first in a series.

I haven’t read the other two novels in the Out of the Hitler Time trilogy, but if they are anything like this one, the Harry Potter Series will just have to deal with being in second place.

Have you read this book? What do you think of it? Do you have any book recommendations?